Learning Objectives
- Apply the Seven-Eyed Model reflexively to your own supervision practice
- Use the model as a dynamic, non-linear framework for exploring professional challenges
- Access a quick reference summary of all seven lenses
Supervision as a Practice Relationship
Supervision is not simply evaluation — it is a practice relationship. The supervisee becomes the supervisor's client. In this relationship, the quality of the supervisory alliance shapes the supervisee's confidence, learning, and professional growth. Just as mediators attend carefully to the quality of their relationships with clients, supervisors attend to the relational foundation of supervision.
This perspective shifts supervision from a hierarchical, assessment-focused activity to a collaborative, learning-focused one. The supervisor's role is not to judge the mediator's performance, but to create a safe space where the mediator can explore their practice deeply, examine their assumptions, and develop greater professional competence and integrity.
The Model in Context
The Seven-Eyed Model was originally developed for counselling and psychotherapy supervision by John Heron and later expanded by Peter Hawkins and Robin Shohet. It is now widely applied across helping professions, including mediation supervision. The power of the model lies in its flexibility and comprehensiveness — it can be applied to examine specific client cases, the supervisory relationship itself, or the supervisor's own practice.
When supervisors use the model reflexively — examining not just the mediator's work with clients, but also their own work with the mediator — they deepen the supervision relationship and model reflective practice. Supervisors can explore: What dynamics are emerging between us? How are my own interventions and relational style shaping supervision? What am I noticing in my body and emotions? What broader professional, cultural, and ethical context is influencing our work together?
Seven Windows into the Supervision Relationship
The Seven-Eyed Model can be imagined as seven different windows into the supervision relationship. Each lens opens a different perspective:
- Lens 1 — Client Context: Window into what the mediator's clients are experiencing, their needs, goals, emotions, and cultural contexts
- Lens 2 — Interventions: Window into the techniques, strategies, and skills the mediator uses, and their alignment with ethical principles
- Lens 3 — Mediator-Client Relationship: Window into the quality and dynamics of interaction between mediator and clients
- Lens 4 — Mediator's Self: Window into the mediator's internal emotional and cognitive processes, reflective capacity, and self-awareness
- Lens 5 — Supervisory Relationship: Window into the interaction between supervisor and mediator, and the quality of the supervisory alliance
- Lens 6 — Supervisor's Self: Window into the supervisor's own emotional responses, biases, ethics, and self-awareness in the supervision relationship
- Lens 7 — Wider Context: Window into the broader systems, structures, and contexts that shape both mediation and supervision
Rather than applying these lenses in a fixed sequence, supervisors move fluidly between them, following what emerges in the supervision conversation. One moment might focus on Lens 1 (What are the clients experiencing?), then shift to Lens 4 (What is the mediator feeling in response?), then to Lens 6 (What is my response as supervisor?), and finally to Lens 7 (What organisational pressures are we all navigating?).
Parallel Process: Echoes in the Room
One of the most powerful dimensions of reflective supervision is parallel process — the way that dynamics between supervisee and supervisor often mirror or echo those between supervisee and client. When a mediator reports feeling unheard by a resistant client, the supervisor might notice that the mediator is not being heard in the supervision room either. When a mediator describes struggling to maintain boundaries with an intrusive party, the supervisor might notice the mediator struggling to maintain boundaries with the supervisor's questions.
These parallels are not coincidences — they offer rich material for reflection. Supervisors can use the here-and-now relationship to cultivate reflective practice. For example, a supervisor might say: "I notice that when I challenged your approach just now, you became quiet and compliant. I'm wondering if something similar might happen with your clients?" This gentle naming of parallel process helps mediators develop awareness of their relational patterns and how these might affect their practice.
A Living Practice
Using the Seven-Eyed Model reflexively encourages supervisors to see supervision as a living practice relationship, not just a technical exercise. This approach recognises that supervision itself is a form of relational practice — and that the quality of this relationship shapes what becomes possible for the mediator's clients.
Quick Reference: The Seven-Eyed Model
Use this table as a quick reference guide when applying the Seven-Eyed Model in your supervision practice:
| Lens | Focus | Key Components | Supervisory Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lens 1: Client Context |
Clients' needs, goals, culture, emotions, systemic influences | Client goals and wishes; cultural and community context; relationships and family dynamics; emotional responses; intersectional factors; systemic barriers | Deepen mediator awareness for ethical, culturally responsive, child-focused practice |
| Lens 2: Interventions |
Techniques, strategies, ethical alignment | Effectiveness of interventions; adaptability and timing; ethical alignment; power balance; emotional regulation; responsiveness to resistance | Strengthen purposeful, adaptive, ethical interventions |
| Lens 3: Mediator-Client Relationship |
Quality and dynamics of interactions | Trust and rapport; boundaries and impartiality; bias and assumptions; power dynamics; empathy and responsiveness; transference and counter-transference | Support professional, impartial, respectful relationships |
| Lens 4: Mediator's Self |
Internal emotional and cognitive processes | Reflective practice; emotional intelligence; triggers and vulnerabilities; conscious and unconscious bias; personal values and assumptions; self-care and resilience | Develop emotional regulation, neutrality, resilience |
| Lens 5: Supervisory Relationship |
Supervisor-mediator interaction | Trust and safety; power dynamics and transparency; feedback and challenge; emotional safety; co-created learning; conflict and repair | Build collaborative, safe, growth-focused alliance |
| Lens 6: Supervisor's Self |
Supervisor's emotions, biases, ethics | Reflective practice; conscious and unconscious bias; power awareness; ethical integrity; self-care and boundaries; modelling of reflective practice | Ensure reflective awareness, manage biases, model integrity |
| Lens 7: Wider Context |
External systems and structures | Organisational culture and KPIs; legal and regulatory frameworks; socio-political and economic factors; community and cultural contexts; power and systemic oppression; policy and funding; interagency collaboration | Promote systemic awareness, ethical adaptation, advocacy |
Each lens offers a unique perspective on the supervision relationship. Supervisors move between lenses fluidly, following what emerges in supervision and adapting to the supervisee's learning needs.
Reflective Questions for Supervisors
Use these questions to deepen your reflective practice as a supervisor:
- In this moment: What am I noticing right now? What is my body telling me? What am I curious about?
- My response: How am I reacting to what the mediator has shared? What feelings or thoughts are arising in me?
- Deeper patterns: What does this reaction tell me about myself? What are my own assumptions, triggers, or values at play?
- Systemic influences: What broader influences are present? What organisational, cultural, legal, or economic contexts are shaping this conversation?
- The relationship: What is happening between us right now? How is our relationship affecting what is possible for learning?
- The mediator's clients: How might the mediator's clients be experiencing this situation? What are their needs and goals?
- Ethical integrity: What ethical principles are relevant here? How can I best support ethical practice?
- Next steps: What does the mediator need from me right now? What invitation or intervention might support their learning?
Pause and Reflect
Choose one of the seven lenses that you find most challenging to apply in your own supervision practice. What makes it difficult? What would it look like to engage with that lens more intentionally in your next supervision session?